111 Inspiring Quotes to Give Thanks Every Day

Thanksgiving offers us a moment to pause and reflect on life’s blessings in a world that often moves too quickly. Whether gathered around a table with loved ones or celebrated quietly.

Gratitude has the power to transform our perspective and enrich our lives.

This collection of quotes captures the essence of Thanksgiving—from historical wisdom to modern reflections, from profound insights to lighthearted observations.

From Cicero’s timeless words on virtue to Maya Angelou’s reflections on giving, these diverse voices remind us that gratitude is both a practice and a gift.

As you explore these quotes, may they inspire you to cultivate thankfulness for one day and as a way of living throughout the year.

Quotes on Thanksgiving

From Historical Figures

1. “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.” — Cicero.

2. “Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.” — Nigel Hamilton

3. “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust

4. “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” — Charles Dickens

5. “Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.” — E.P. Powell

6. “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.” — Melody Beattie

7. “To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.” — Johannes A. Gaertner

8. “Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” — W.T. Purkiser

9. “The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” — Dalai Lama

10. “Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” — Margaret Cousins

11. “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” — Anonymous

12. “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” — Willie Nelson

13. “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” — Meister Eckhart

14. “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” — Oprah Winfrey

15. “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” — Melody Beattie

16. “The heart that gives thanks is a happy one, for we cannot feel thankful and unhappy at the same time.” — Douglas Wood

17. “Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.” — Rumi

18. “We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.” — Neal A. Maxwell

19. “Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.” — Karl Barth

20. “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” — G.K. Chesterton

Giving Thanks Quotes

21. “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.” — John F. Kennedy

22. “Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling.” — Henry Van Dyke

23. “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” — Ambrose of Milan

24. “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” — William Arthur Ward

25. “At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” — Albert Schweitzer

26. “The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.” — William Blake

27. “Silent gratitude isn’t very much use to anyone.” — Gertrude Stein

28. “Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.” — Aesop

29. “The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for.” — Norman Vincent Pea.le

30. “Thanksgiving is a joyous invitation to shower the world with love and gratitude.” — Amy Leigh Mercree

31. “Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year because it reminds us to give thanks and to count our blessings. Suddenly, so many things become so little when we realize how blessed and lucky we are.” — Joyce Giraud.

32. “Thanksgiving reminds us that no matter what befalls us in life, we can take the charred remnant, and we can reconstruct a life unimaginably richer than that from which the shards and pieces fell.” — Craig D. Lounsb. rough

33. “Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.” — W.J. Cameron

34. “If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.” — W. Clement Stone

35. “Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.” — Amy Grant

36. “The turkey is the guest of honor at Thanksgiving, but the family is the heart of the celebration.” — Anonymous

37. “There is always something to be thankful for. If you can’t pay your bills, you can be thankful you’re not one of your creditors.” — Unknown

38. “The most important prayer in the world is just two words long: Thank you.” — Meister Eckhart

39. “When asked if my cup is half-full or half-empty my only response is that I am thankful I have a cup.” — Sam Lefkowitz

40. “Family is where life begins and love never ends.” — Unknown

Abundance and Blessings

41. “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” — Thornton Wilder

42. “In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

43. “The more you are in a state of gratitude, the more you will attract things to be grateful for.” — Walt Disney

44. “Thanksgiving is a time to give, a time to love, and a time to reflect on the things that matter most in life.” — Daniell E.e Duckery

45. “Thanksgiving creates abundance.” — Ann Voskamp

46. “Forever on Thanksgivin,g the heart will find the pathway home.” — Wilbur D. Nesbitt

47. “The world has enough beautiful mountains and meadows, spectacular skies and serene lakes. It has enough lush forests, flowered fields, and sandy beaches. It has plenty of stars and the promise of a new sunrise and sunset every day. What the world needs more of is people to appreciate and enjoy it.” — Michael Joseph son

48. “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” — Eckhart Tolle

49. “When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” — Maya  Angelou

50. “Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life: Each year has grown better than the last.” — Lawrence Welk

51. “Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” — William Arthur Ward

52. “Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.” — Robert Caspar Lintner

53. “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” — John  Milton

54. “Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace, the celebration of work and the simple life… a folk festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year — and the deep, deep connection of all these things with God.” — Ray Stannard Baker

55. “Thanksgiving is a time to count your blessings, one by one, as each relative goes home.” — Melanie White

56. “The trick is to be grateful when your mood is high and graceful when it is low.” — Richard Carls.o n

57. “Thanksgiving is the meal we aspire for other meals to resemble.” — Jonathan Safran Foer

58. “The act of focusing our attention on what we are grateful for is a powerful transformative practice.” — Jack Canfield

59. “Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

60. “Thanksgiving is the holiday that encompasses all others. All of them, from Martin Luther King Day to Arbor Day to Christmas to Valentine’s Day, are in one way or another about being thankful.” — Jonathan Safran Foer

Perspective and Attitude

61. “Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.” — Kevin James

62. “An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.” — Irv Kupcinet

63. “What if, today, we were grateful for everything?” — Charlie Brown

64. “If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.” — Frank A. Clark

65. “The struggle ends when gratitude begins.” — Neale Donald Walsch

66. “Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” — William Faulkner

67. “Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.” — Erma Bombeck

68. “Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” — W.T. Purkiser

69. “Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.” — Johnny Carson

70. “I like football. I find it’s an exciting strategic game. It’s a great way to avoid conversation with your family at Thanksgiving.” — Craig Ferguson

71. “Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.” — Jim Davis

72. “You can tell you ate too much for Thanksgiving when you have to let your bathrobe out.” — Jay Leno

73. “After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” — Oscar Wilde

74. “Gratitude is the wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk.” — Rumi

75. “My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor.” — Phyllis Diller

76. “I am grateful for what I am and have. My Thanksgiving is perpetual.” — Henry David Thoreau

77. “I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.” — Erma Bombeck

78. “On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence.” — William Jennings Bryan

79. “Thanksgiving is America’s national chow-down feast, the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty.” — Michael Dresser

80. “When I was a kid in Indiana, we thought it would be fun to get a turkey a year ahead of time and feed it and so on for the following Thanksgiving. But by the time Thanksgiving came around, we sort of thought of the turkey as a pet, so we ate the dog. Only kidding. It was the cat.” — David Letterman

On Life and Wisdom

81. “Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” — A.A. Milne

82. “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer.” — Maya Angelou

83. “The real gift of gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.” — Robert Holden

84. “Thanksgiving is a season that is very much in accord with the themes and teachings of Jesus Christ.” — John Clayton.

85. “Thanksgiving is one of my favorite American traditions. I quickly picked it up when I moved to the U.S. from Sweden.” — Marcus Samulessonon.

86. “To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.” — Victor Hugo

87. “Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside.” — Willard Scott

88. “Thanksgiving is the day when you turn to another family member and say, ‘How long has Mom been drinking like this?’ My Mom, after six Bloody Marys looks at the turkey and goes, ‘Here, kitty, kitty.'” — David Letterman

89. “Thanksgiving is a time when the world gets to see just how blessed and how workable the Christian system is. The emphasis is not on giving or buying, but on being thankful and expressing that appreciation to God and to one another.” — John Clayton

90. “On Thanksgiving, I will stop to give thanks that my family is safe and healthy, especially because I realize that, following the tragedies of this year, it is all too real a possibility that they might not have been.” — Bobby Jindal

91. “Even in the trials of life, if we have eyes to see them, we can find good things everywhere we look.” — Joanna Gaines

92. “Thanksgiving is a special day, a day we share the joy of living in a nation of plenty. A day we can look to the future, confident in the conviction that our best days lie ahead.” — Ronald Reagan

93. “What I love about Thanksgiving is that it’s purely about getting together with friends or family and enjoying food. ally for everybody, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from.” —. Daniel Humm

94. “Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet. Believe in man. Soberly and with clear eyes believe in your own time and place. There is not, and there has never been a better time or a better place to live in.” — Ph.illips Brooks

95. “The times are never so bad but that a good man can make the hift to live in them.”. — Thomas More

96. “Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.” — William Shakespeare

97. “For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

98. “Thanksgiving is nothing if not a glad and reverent lifting of the heart to God in honor and praise for His goodness.” — Robert Casper Lintner

99. “We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.” — Harry A. Ironside

100. “Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.” — Edward Sandford Martin

101. “When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”. — Maya Angelou

102. “Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other..” — Randy Pausch

103. “The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.”. — Charles Schwab

104. “Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.” — Brian Tracy

105. “It is impossible to be negative while we are giving thanks..” — Donald Curtis

106. “If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life might.ily.” — Gerald Good

107. “Thanksgiving is a time of quiet reflection upon the past and an annual reminder that God has, again, been ever so faithful. The solid and simple things of life are brought into clear focus.” —. Charles R. Swindoll

108. “Thankfulness is the quickest path to joy.” — Jefferson Bethke

109. “I am grateful for what I am and have. My Thanksgiving is perpetual.” — Henry David Thoreau

110. “A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.” — Cicero

111. “Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” — Lionel Hampton

Wrapping It Up!

As we reflect on these expressions of Thanksgiving, we’re reminded that gratitude isn’t confined to a single day or season.

The wisdom shared by philosophers, poets, leaders, and everyday people across generations points to a universal truth: thankfulness transforms us from within.

The practice of gratitude costs nothing yet yields immeasurable returns—peace in difficult moments, joy in ordinary days, and deeper connections with those around us.

Whether through spoken words, written reflections, or simple acts of kindness, we each have countless opportunities to express appreciation daily.

As you leave this collection of quotes, consider choosing one that resonates most deeply with you. May gratitude be your daily practice long after the Thanksgiving table is cleared.